Five low-cost video chat apps

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As someone who travels almost constantly, I depend on video conferencing software to keep in touch with friends, family, and clients. Although video conferencing has long had a reputation for being expensive, there are actually a lot of free or low cost video chat applications available. This article lists five such applications.

Five Apps

1. Camfrog Video Chat

Camfrog Video Chat is a free video chat application that can also be used for audio, text chat, and even for transferring files. The software is simple to install. However, after doing so, you must complete a quick and easy online registration that consists of supplying a nickname, password, and e-mail address.

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After completing that process, you then have access to the Camfrog network.

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The Camfrog network consists of numerous chat rooms dedicated to all manner of chats ranging from kid friendly to some that are rather dubious.

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2. Eyeball Chat

Eyeball Chat is another free video chat application. Like Camfrog Video Chat, Eyeball Chat lets you communicate through voice, video, and text, and also allows for file sharing.

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Eyeball chat also features the ability to place calls. You can make PC to PC calls for free, but you can also use the software to place calls to cell phones or to land lines.

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3. inSpeak – The Voice Chat Communicator

In spite of its name, inSpeak – The Voice Chat Communicator supports video as well as voice. This free application lets you view up to six Web cams at a time. Like the other applications discussed in this article, InSpeak – The Voice Chat Communicator requires you to complete a simple registration process. Upon doing so, the service e-mails you a random password, which you use to log into the service.

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The InSpeak software offers all of the basics that you would typically expect from a video chat application, but it also contains one noteworthy feature. The service actually allows you to create and administer your own chat rooms. That way you can build special purpose chat rooms that are under your full control.

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4. Nimbuzz Messenger

Nimbuzz Messenger is a free video chat application. The biggest thing that makes Nimbuzz Messenger stand out from the other chat applications is that the Nimbuzz Messenger could best be described as a chat client. This means that Nimbuzz Messenger can be used with things like Facebook, Windows Live, and Yahoo.

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In addition, Nimbuzz Manager also has its own chat environment that you can use even if you don’t belong to any of the supported third-party messaging environments.

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5. VZ0chat

VZ0chat is yet another free video chat application. VZ0chat has a number of different things going for it. First, it supports up to 120 users in a chat at a time. Another nice feature is call-history tracking. The software even maintains a list of missed calls. The icing on the cake is that unlike some chat applications, VZ0chat works from behind a firewall.

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VZ0chat does an especially nice job with user management. The software allows you to import contacts from your e-mail software, and there is also a way to block calls from people who are not on your contacts list.

Camfrog 1

As someone who travels almost constantly, I depend on video conferencing software to keep in touch with friends, family, and clients. Although video conferencing has long had a reputation for being expensive, there are actually a lot of free or low cost video chat applications available. This article lists five such applications.

Five Apps

1. Camfrog Video Chat

Camfrog Video Chat is a free video chat application that can also be used for audio, text chat, and even for transferring files. The software is simple to install. However, after doing so, you must complete a quick and easy online registration that consists of supplying a nickname, password, and e-mail address.

Great App - available for PC, Mac, iPhone, Android and via Facebook...
Up to 12 HD Video Clients in one Session -
yes with Advertising in the Application Window,
which can be turned off for a $30 Fee,
BUT
it does not bother me at all...

I object to givng my full date of birth even if there are these vague privacy promises. As a result I will not use any service which demands this and they lose my custom. Date of Birth is an important peice of personal inforamtion which can be used to steal other information.

The depths to which this "article" delves is staggering - for it's lack. For a 'go figure it out for yourself' list, this is about as informative as a soundbite or tweet. A trend in TR reporting that leaves everything to be desired. I thought I was on facebook for a moment half expecting to see a picture of what the writer had for lunch. The response "It's free and has a large user base." conveyed more useful info (though I would call it a gigantic global user base).
It would have saved bandwidth to post a screen shot of the list with the caption "google these".

I am a firm believer in reading skills, why has Tech Republic and others started displaying everything in videos and graphics.
Good Readings skills can be developed by reading articles instead of looking at videos and pictures, please go back to articles that are written and read!

Nice to hear about some different products but... I'll bet that 90% of the population uses: Skype, Tango, Facetime and Google Chat on a regular basis. Convenience and connectivity is where it's at. If it isn't as easy as making a phone call then I think a standard is tough to adopt. Mobile is also important. Despite what Corporate would like. People are all over and don't have a "video conference" center handy.
It's like the days of VPN where things had to be set up just right at both ends of the pipe for it to work. Today solutions have to be quick and dynamic. Cloud hosting solutions are replacing VPN just like mobile video is replacing structured video calls.

Martin Hugh Harvey, you mentioned two points that make Vidyo superior to Skype.
Doesn't HD also depend on the camera being used? And what do you mean by "collaborative"? If (video) conference calls, then Skype of course has that capability too (for a price).
Matthew Moran, I think you mean your are "uninterested" in finding an obscure app..."disinterested" means something a tad different...

Hmmm.. I use Skype in my coaching, Google Hangouts from time to time, and Spreecast for group video chats... I am disinterested in finding and using an obscure app with a limited user base..
The article provides no information about the effectiveness of these apps.. Empty content?
:-(

Sorry, but I don't really see the point of this article. Showing a bunch of screen shots isn't very informative. Did the author install and try to use all of these applications? What are the pros and cons of each program? Why would a business user decide that any one of these was better than any other? How do these compare to widely-used Skype? Why should we read this article?

It's one of their "[i]5 thisorthat[/i] for [i]anything[/i]" posts which mean absolutely nothing but are supposed to interest you in other usually unknown software, some of which is sometimes a lot more useful to some of us than originally thought.
Thanks HAL9000 for the refresher course in the proper tags to use; I had tried the html tags that look like "less than" and "greater than" before, and those obviously don't work.

Skype not being mentioned here, even if only to point out that it exists, leads me to believe that something is fishy in this reporting. This is the first time that I am suspicious of TechRepublic??s motives.

Like martinwtaylor I'd like to know why replace Skype with one of these solutions. I also happen to use a cloud based Vidyo service that is far superior (HD, collaborative) but it isn't free. With Skype one gets what one pays for it!

They have been for a long time now and just require a [i] at the front of the whatever you want to turn into Italics and a [/i] at the end
You can also Bold things like [b]I love highlighting text to make it stand out[/b] and underline text with a [u]I love highlighting text to make it stand out.[/u]
Italics require a brackets i and close brackets [b] [ i ] [/b]at the beginning of the text you want to turn into italics and a open brackets /i and close brackets at the end [b] [ /i ] [/b]
For Bold you open brackets b and close brackets at the beginning [b] [ b ] [/b] and open brackets /b close brackets at the end [b] [ /b ]. [/b]
For underlining you just use a u [b] [ u ] [/b] instead of a i or a b.
Col